


vividity

by malevon



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 09:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13097667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevon/pseuds/malevon
Summary: a soulmate au where when you meet your soulmate you see color





	vividity

**Author's Note:**

> wow i bet this has never been done before! but it guess it really hasn’t been considering these are ocs

Kharis had slept in many strange beds, but usually he remembered where fell asleep. He’d also woken up to even stranger circumstances, but usually his mind was clear enough, sharp enough to glean at least a little bit of context for the situations he was in; this time, however, Kharis had no idea where he was or why he was there or what was going on. 

It was early evening, he thought as he creaked open his eyes just a hair, but even the weak light of sunset made his head pound. Kharis attempted to shift, but there was some sort of restraints against his hands and ankles (and around his chest, he realized as he inhaled sharply). He was standing upright but not on his own accord, dead weight tied up against some sort of pole, he guessed. Where in the hell was he?

“So are you awake now, or what?” a snippy voice said from somewhere in front of him. He tried once again to open his eyes, this time he succeeded, and he was greeted with one thing, something extremely foreign to him: color.

God, it was amazing.

He’d only known of color from his mother, who told him about the reds and oranges and pinks of the sunrise, the deep blues of sunset, the greens and yellows of the forest that also resided in his eyes, she’d told him. It’d been so long since he had heard from her that any thoughts of color had slipped from his mind, and even when he was with her, sometimes Kharis didn’t even believe her, that color was something only in stories. It was real, it was real, it was real.

He ignored the girl before him, who his mind now registered as Lea Calaway, the outlaw he’d been hired to kill, but for one moment, he allowed himself to abandon his duty and truly take in his surroundings: a ship, rich in warm reds and browns, a single ship in an expanse of endless blue against a darkening sky that still held the faded pinks of sunset. 

“You see it?” she spoke again, and this time, Kharis turned to her. He planted his feet and stood on his own so the ropes didn’t strain his skin as much. Lea had his blue cloak wrapped around her shoulders and was fiddling with his staff, and she ran a frustrated hand through her red hair, and in that moment, he remembered the reason why he knew of color at all, why his mother knew of color, and the awe that he had felt moments before fell away.

_Damn it._

“I’m not going to suddenly trust you with my heart or anything,” she grinned, eyeing Kharis down, a challenging spark in her rich brown eyes. “After all, you did just try to kill me.”

She had a fair point. Kharis frowned and looked away from her, glancing once again at the ocean. This changed everything; no, it didn’t change anything, she was still a task to be completed, and he’d go back to his job and take another—

“Well, I suppose,” she starts, “you could still kill me. But, answer me this: do you know where we are, stranger? Do you know how to steer a ship? This one, particularly? A better question, maybe, do you even want to kill me at this point, now that we have this special little arrangement?”

“Don’t ask me that,” Kharis mumbled, clenching his fists against the ropes. He could feel the slight chill of ice forming in his palms. He didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to sleep. His head hurt.

Lea shrugged, sitting down in front of him and crossing her legs, looking at him almost quizzically. “So what’s going through your little Taylvin mind right now? Coin for your thoughts,” she smirked and flicked a bright gold piece at him, one that Kharis would have bet came from his pouch, and he turned his attention to it, watching as it clattered along the ground. Kharis kept his eyes down, staying silent. He didn’t want to think about it, any of it, the implications—truthfully, he hadn’t thought about his colorless world in years, not since he started work. It was just the way things were. But this? He never thought this day would come, and not with someone like Lea Calaway.

He had to get off this ship. The colors were blinding.

“Aw, come on now, we can talk about our feelings!” she pouted, and Kharis found his eyes locked on hers now. He wondered if the colors would bleed away if he killed her.

Did he really have the will for that? Years of killing people of every size, species, strength, and he was made to hesitate by a girl nearly a head shorter than him? _What was different?_

_Everything._

“I need to think,” he settled for, gaze going back down to the ground. The playfulness in Calaway’s eyes drained, replaced by something that Kharis would almost call understanding. He was going through the same whirlwind that she had when she had knocked him out on the dock and slung his body onto her ship, all the while mesmerized by the new world of vivid color that surrounded her. She could respect his wish for even a moment of time to himself.

She nodded, and Kharis leaned his head back against the mast. He didn’t see her stand and walk behind him, only felt the tension around his ankles release, and the warm brush of her hands against his as she used his dagger to slice the ropes binding him. Kharis stepped forward and whirled around, sizing her up on instinct, but she seemed to be perpetually relaxed, completely at home on the seas. She strolled back towards the front of the ship, stopping at the base of a small set of steps that lead up the helm, and turned to face him.

“I’ll be keeping this,” she said, hefting his dagger in her hand. “The cloak, too. It gets cold up at the wheel. I can arrange a sleeping space for you in the cabin, if you want, since we’ll be out here a while. I planned for a long trip.”

“Where are we going?”

“Wherever the wind pleases, my friend.” A pause. “What is your name, anyway? I figure we should at least be honest with each other about that.”

Another pause. Would it really matter?

“Kharis.” Nothing further.

“Alright then, Kharis, tell me, are you a romantic? Like long walks on the beach? Dinner dates at the fancy restaurants in the capital?” she questioned, and laughed a loud, unapologetic laugh when Kharis visibly tightened. A laugh that ended with a sigh, and “I’m pushing my luck, aren’t I? You still have a job to do, but I’ll let you have your thinking time.”

And with that, she bounded up the steps and took her place at the forefront of the ship, and, as promised, Kharis was left alone with his thoughts.


End file.
